


BE MINE

by WriteDragon (lightspire)



Category: due South
Genre: Candy, Fluff, M/M, Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-11-05 15:22:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17921378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightspire/pseuds/WriteDragon
Summary: Someone is leaving candy hearts all over the 27th Precinct.





	BE MINE

**Author's Note:**

> All conversation heart sayings are authentic to the 1990s. Sayings taken from the hearts appear in ALL CAPS.
> 
> Written for the Conversation Hearts ds_flashfiction challenge on Dreamwidth (original publication date February 14, 2019).

A week before Valentine’s day, a small pink box of Necco candy conversation hearts appeared on everyone’s desk at the 27th Precinct, with no indication of who had left them there. Everyone got one — even Lieutenant Welsh. Everyone, that is, except Ray Kowalski.

“Aww, how sweet!” Francesca cooed, a big smile on her face. “I wonder who left these?”

“I have a few choice words for the perpetrator,” said Welsh. He pretended to toss his box in the trash but secretly pocketed them.

“Ugh,” Ray scowled. “They’re stupid and they taste like chalk.”

“You’re just jealous,” Frannie said, rattling her box, “because you didn’t get one.”

“Don’t care,” Ray shrugged and turned back to his paperwork. Valentine’s day was hard enough for him since Stella left. He didn’t need any reminders that his love life was nonexistent. 

“What, you didn’t get any?” Huey arched an eyebrow. “I got one. Dewey did too. Heck, even Rob the janitor got a box. Ouch.”

“Shut up,” Ray muttered, poking furiously at his computer keyboard, pretending to be concentrating on the Hale case. Murderers and thieves were better company.

Still staring at the screen, Ray absently reached for the mouse. As his hand wrapped around its curved plastic dome his palm struck something hard. He pulled his hand back to find a single yellow candy heart stuck to his palm. He turned it over to look at it and read the words: COOL DUDE.

Ha. Right. Now they were making fun of him. He wondered who could’ve left the heart — coulda been any one of the jerks he had to work with. He chucked it into the trash and got back to his computer search.

At lunchtime the next day, Ray slipped on his jacket and headed out to the sandwich place on the corner. It was chilly out so he stuffed his hands into his pockets. He dug his hands down, seeking warmth, until felt something hard jab the tip of his finger.

“What the hell?” He pulled the small object out of his pocket and looked at it: a green candy heart stamped with MISS YOU. Ok, now, that was queer. One heart teasing him was bad enough but this was a bit creepy. 

When Ray got back to the Precinct he found a neat rainbow-colored row of candy hearts in front of the keyboard on his desk: FAX ME, PAGE ME, 1-800 CUPID, EMAIL ME, WWW.CUPID.

He stood up and yelled out, loud enough for the entire bullpen to hear, “Ok, you’ve had your fun. I’m calling TIME OUT. You can knock it off now.”

“Whaddaya mean?” Frannie asked.

Ray shot her a death glare. 

“Ok, geez. Sorry I asked,” she said. “LET IT BE, bro.”

“YEAH RIGHT,” said Ray, and stomped off to get a cup of coffee.

When he got back to his desk, hot coffee in hand, he opened the drawer where he kept a stash of M&Ms, intending to put some in his coffee to make it palatable. In the drawer he found a brand new packet of chocolates printed with a Valentine’s day design. Resting on top of it were two candy hearts, a blue and a green that read: SWEET TALK, SWEET LOVE. He scowled and threw the candy hearts across the room, where they nearly missed a passing Lieutenant Welsh before clattering to the floor.

“Is there a problem, Detective Vecchio?” Welsh said, glowering at him.

Ray turned beet red before stammering out an apology and rushing to pick up the candy. “No sir. I just don’t care for candy hearts is all.” 

“I see. It would be in your best interests to express your distaste for confectionery in less violent ways in the future.”

“Yes sir. I’ll do that.”

“I have every confidence that you will,” said Welsh, giving a curt nod and exiting stage left, pursued by absolutely no one.

The next day, Ray was in a foul mood. The candy hearts were everywhere. He found two tucked into his pockets (a pink YOU ROCK in the left, and a green I GOT U BABE in the right). A blue I WONDER showed up in his in-tray. The weirdest one by far was the yellow YES tucked into an unmarked envelope on his desk. 

Ray was beyond annoyed now and was starting to wonder if he had either a secret admirer or maybe a stalker. He had the envelope dusted for prints but there weren’t any. Whoever was doing this knew how to avoid detection.

By the day before Valentine’s, the messages on the hearts had gotten more personal. He found a green LOVE ME TENDER taped to the top of his stapler and a BE MINE in his pencil cup. Ray was almost ready to do a stakeout to catch the prankster, but decided it ultimately wasn’t worth the trouble. He settled for kicking a few guys in the head when he and Fraser took down a low-level illegal gambling ring later that evening. 

Ray didn’t mention his candy-stalker to Fraser. He didn’t want to make a big deal of it. After tomorrow — Valentine’s Day — it’d probably all be over anyway. His jokester would have had his or her fun and the novelty would’ve worn off. Hopefully.

When Ray walked into the 27th the next day, the flowers on all the women’s (and a couple of the men’s) desks were enough to make him green around the gills. No Stella, no date, no love life, no hope. It made him want to take a sick day.

Instead he called Fraser. “LET’S DO LUNCH,” he said on the phone.

“Do what to lunch?” Fraser asked, oblivious to American expressions as usual.

“Eat it. Let’s go grab some Chinese food. I’ll pick you up.” 

Thirty minutes later, after Ray had fetched Fraser from the Consulate, they were tucked into a corner booth at Fraser’s favorite Chinese restaurant, sipping hot and sour soup. After ordering their main entrees, Fraser said a long string of something incomprehensible in Mandarin to the elderly waitress. She raised her eyebrows, surprised, and smiled at Fraser, then at Ray, before disappearing into the steamy kitchen. After they’d enjoyed a delicious meal, which Fraser had insisted on paying for, the waitress brought out a small plate containing two fortune cookies and set them directly in front of Ray.

“Want one?” Ray said, offering a cookie to Fraser.

“I couldn’t eat another bite,” Fraser replied, “You have them.” 

Ray could’ve sworn he was trying to suppress a smile.

Ray cracked open the first cookie and his mouth fell open in shock. Inside was a single pink candy heart that read BE MINE.

He looked up into Fraser’s face, stunned, and searched his eyes. All he found there was a twinkle and a raised eyebrow, arched and questioning. 

“What?... NO WAY! You?... How the hell?” Ray stammered, blushing furiously but unable to contain the grin spreading across his face. Fraser. Of course. But this meant… oh God…. Ray’s mind reeled with new awareness and possibility.

“Open the other one,” Fraser said, his voice gentle.

Ray did. A yellow heart with the words KISS ME stamped in red fell onto the plate. Ray stared at Fraser, who smirked and licked his lips.

Ray swallowed and blushed again. “You serious?”

Fraser nodded.

“Uh. Ok. But not here.” As he reached into his pants pocket for his car keys he found one more heart. How the hell Fraser had gotten it in there, Ray didn’t even want to stop to think. LOVE YOU, it said, in blazing red letters stamped on pink.

As soon as they got into the car Ray hot-footed it to a nearby deserted underpass, and the instant he threw the car into park they were on each other, kissing like crazy. 

Between warm wet smooches Ray said breathlessly, “Someday you’re gonna have to tell me how you did that.”

But today was not that day. Today was a day for a different kind of conversation, one between two hearts.

 

The End.

  
  
  



End file.
